One of the
tragedies of skin care is that many women are trying to hard to remove skin
blemishes often destroys the skin's natural beauty. It doesn’t do any good to
find the best skin foundation or the best skin moisturizer if your skin care
habits actually aggravate your skin problems. There are many mistakes that
sufferers of acne, rosacea, psoriasis, eczema, psoriasis, and wrinkles can
make, but these five are the most common skin care errors that destroy
beautiful skin.
1. Rub your skin
away.
When pores get
blocked and pimples follow, it's natural to want to remove the bad stuff underneath
that is inflaming your skin. The problem with rubbing your skin to get rid of
blemishes is (1) the most noticeable blemishes are caused by the oxidation of
your skin or the accumulation of blood under your skin and won't come out no
matter how hard you rub, and (2) rubbing skin can actually cause acne to break
out.
Always treat your
skin gently. If you notice little flakes of skin (especially after sunburn) or
you have dry skin, moisturize to protect the living cells beneath, and then
exfoliate with a very mild peel chosen for your skin type if you want to
highlight your natural skin tones. But whatever you do, don't rub. Pat your
skin dry. Rubbing skin loosens microscopic bits and pieces of dead skin but
doesn't remove them. They can linger on the surface of the skin where they
block pores and cause acne. Even though the individual flakes of dead skin may
not be visible, they can still cause an odd matte or texture to the skin that
becomes particularly noticeable a few hours after putting on makeup.
2. Dry your skin
out.
What is best for
oily skin never involves drying it out. Even if your skin is oily, it is never
a good idea to try to make it dry. And even oily skin often needs moisturizers.
Drying out the skin is usually a misguided attempt to deal with the
consequences failing to keep naturally oily skin clean.
Why shouldn't you
try to dry out your skin? First of all, "drying" removes moisture. It
leaves oil. In fact, it leaves oil that becomes trapped in dried out, tight,
inflexible, wrinkled skin.
Drying skin doesn't
treat acne or rosacea. In fact, it can make them worse. The skin around
whiteheads and blackheads can become so tight that it is impossible for them to
drain. They can only accumulate more and more sebum, bacteria, and irritants.
And in rosacea, drying out the skin makes it more sensitive to the changes in
temperature that cause blood vessels to dilate and redden the skin around the
eyes and across the cheeks.
Don't dry your
skin. Remove excess oil—but remember, there is no such thing as excessive
moisture in the skin. (Too much collagen in some skin care products, however,
can cause a watery mess on top of the skin. This can simply be washed away with
soap and water.)
3. Eat lots of
sugar.
The old advice used
to be that if you wanted perfect skin, you had to avoid chocolate and nuts.
Both chocolate and nuts, it turns out, contain flavonoids and essential fatty
acids that actually help maintain healthy skin, provided consumption is limited
to about 100 g (3 oz) of either food in any one day.
Sugar, however, is
destructive to skin health. This is because high blood sugar levels are
relatively easy to lower in other parts of the body, but it simply takes longer
for insulin to reach the microscopic blood vessels the flow through the skin.
It is possible to have a kind of "skin diabetes" whether or not you
have any other form of diabetes.
What happens when
you heat sugar? You get caramel. A similar process occurs in the skin. The
higher the blood glucose concentration in the capillaries of the skin, the more
likely sugar is to join to various proteins to make them glycosylated, or
"sticky." These sticky proteins make skin stiffer. Stiff skin
wrinkles, has less circulation to carry away toxins and irritants, and traps
the skin oil sebum inside pores. Avoiding sugar is not enough to guarantee
beautiful skin, but it's a great start.
4. Forget your
sunscreen.
Freckles, age
spots, and wrinkles are a common complication of too much sun. The UV-A rays of
sunlight damage DNA so that skin cells cannot repair themselves and grow
normally. The skin tries to remedy itself by "tanning," but sometimes
the cells that make the melanin that makes skin dark go into overdrive, leading
not to a smooth, healthy tan, but to clumps of lentigos and liver spots.
In most of the
United States and in all of the tropics, people should wear sunscreen every day
of the year. Getting at least a little sun on a regular basis is essential to
the body's ability to make vitamin D (and, ironically, vitamin D deficiency is
a leading cause of skin cancer), but always make sure you wear a sunscreen or a
foundation with sunscreen that protects against not just UV-B but also UV-A.
5. Wash your
skin with industrial-strength soap.
If you work on old
cars for a living, you probably use some soap like Lava to get the grease off
your fingers. But if you do, could you get a job as a hand model?
Drying, abrasive
soaps are especially detrimental to beautiful skin on the face. Choose mild
soaps, applied with warm (not hot or cold) water, preferably a soap chosen to
take into account whether your skin is oily or dry, sensitive or normal, and
whether you have allergies or sensitivities. Spread the cleanser over your
skin. Let it do the work of cleansing your skin. Then remove with more warm
water, and pat skin dry. Never use an abrasive on any skin unless absolutely
necessary.
Avoiding these five
mistakes will make it a lot easier to keep beautiful skin. And energizing the
skin will help even more.
LAST TIP: Use a skin care system
Putting together a
cleanser, toner, and moisturizer from what's on sale at your local drug does
not help much; it might even damage your skin.
You should always
use a skin care system that is designed and formulated to work together with
the facial serum. With a proper skin care system, such as the Fyola Facial
machine with ultrasound gel or facial serum, there is no more guess work about
which product is best for your type of skin. Men can also use this skin care
system.
